I have talked a lot about how people make excuses to justify the sins they commit. Almost everyone does it to some extent, but there is one excuse I hear more than any other; abuse.

The type of abuse may vary but it is the main thing people seem to leap to when justifying something they have done wrong. We all have been abused to some extent because we are surrounded by other sinful people. Because of the things others have done to us or taught us to think, we basically act as though we can't change what we are doing. We take the blame and put it on someone else because they hurt us in some way. Crazy as it sounds, when someone gets abused they are actually more likely to start abusing other people the same way as compared to never treating someone else that way.

I was very guilty of this and probably still am sometimes. I went through all kinds of crap as I was growing up and it really sticks with you. Anyone that knows me well knows I have been struggling with depression for a long time now and I didn't even know it until recently. The sad thing is, I learned a lot of behaviors from my family that I then did myself. It would be very easy to just hold on to them forever and blame my family, but the reality is I am accountable for my own actions and so is everyone else.

No matter what circumstances you are in, past, present, or future, you are the one accountable for how you respond.

You can't do anything about what other people will decide to do or the things they will teach you as you grow up. You also can't do much to control the things your friends might try and pressure you into, but you can always decide for yourself if it is right or not. Even though it may not seem like it, there is always a choice and you can do the right thing, even if it requires sacrifice on your part. The key is not allowing other people to determine who you are going to be. You have to choose to be righteous no matter what the cost, and there is never truly an excuse to do anything different.

I know how easy it is to fall back on abuse as an excuse, the things people do to us can really hurt and scar us for life. No matter how deep the scar is though, we have to stop making excuses and change into the person Jesus wants us to be. There will always be an excuse. Something to justify any action we might take, but Jesus died so that we could be more than that. We have the power to become so much better because we literally have God at our side guiding the way. So let's stop blaming the past for how we are now and let it die with our old selves, because that is what happened when we came to Christ. The old you died, and a new creation was born right there. Don't get held down by the things that are better off buried with the old you.